How would you qualify or describe different aspects of your target culture? Reflect and your own experiences and expectations of the culture in question. How does your culture reflect various qualitative Hofstede dimensions of culture explored in class, e.g., body language, how people talk about time, etc. Also, have you ever experienced culture shock? If so, describe.
As a native speaker of Chinese, I would say that most aspects of the Korean culture are quite similar to those of Chinese culture, while they could be extremely different from the American culture. For example, both Chinese culture and Korean culture are based on some forms of collectivism. People like to work in groups and do anything in groups. Time after work is often reserved for some group activities such as eating out and drinking out, whereas that is not the case in United States. People value their personal and family time after work. Another aspect is the marriage culture in Korea. I had a very interesting cultural talk with my Korean learning partner Lena the other day on the marriage culture in Korea. It is quite similar to that in China as it is demanding and rigid for the female side in a new family. The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is normally intense, and the new daughter-in-law has to take over almost all the housework at home. Whereas in the States, the status relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is more equal and friendly.
Same as the general Asian culture, Korean culture as a whole is more conservative than that of most North American and European culture. Deeply influenced by Confucianism, people in not only Korea, but also most East Asian countries need to show special respect to the elderly and people of higher social status such as teachers, doctors, etc. Some interesting cultural aspects I noticed in Korean language is that they have a separate language system when speaking to people who are either elder or of higher social standing. Korean speakers also adopt different expressions when speaking in formal ways.
In terms of cultural shock, I did not really have any when traveling to other Asian countries, as all Asian cultures are similar to one another. However, when I traveled to Singapore, I was deeply impressed by how clean the city is. Later on, I knew that it is forbidden to chew gums in public in Singapore and the regulatory system there is quite rigid. When I first came to the States, I was greatly shocked by how friendly people here are to strangers. It is quite normal in Richmond to see people randomly saying Hi to strangers. However, if the same thing were to happen in either China or Korea, that would be regarded as an uncommon or even strange behavior.
Comments